HC Deb 08 November 1989 vol 159 cc689-94W
Mr. Malins

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made on the Government's initiative announced in February for improving life for people in residential homes; whether he proposes to take any further action on the recommendations of the committee on residential care chaired by Lady Wagner; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

In February we announced our intention to launch a development programme aimed at improving life for people in residential homes, based on recommendations of the committee chaired by Lady Wagner.

We have appointed five agencies to carry forward important recommendations from the committee's report "Residential Care: A Positive Choice". Work has now begun and will continue for the next three years at a total cost of around £2.2 million. This initiative aims at better training for staff in homes, better information for the public in making choices, effective, accessible and widely known arrangements for making suggestions and complaints, a closer relationship between homes and their local communities and better management of homes. Cost-effective ways of achieving these objectives will be explored through a wide range of development projects. The results of these activities will be made widely and regularly available to national and local agencies concerned and will be independently assessed.

The thrust of many of the committee's recommendations, for example on the organisation and funding of community care, has been taken into account in the wider context of community care development and will be reflected in the forthcoming White Paper.

The committee's recommendations on setting and maintaining standards have been incorporated in our proposals to achieve even-handedness in inspection of residential care homes, as between independent and local authority homes, through the setting up of inspection units in social services departments at arms length from the management of local authorities' own homes. Issues concerning children and young people, on which the Wagner committee made recommendations, are covered in the Children Bill, including education and health needs of children in care, keeping siblings together wherever practicable and appropriate, the needs of ethnic minority groups and accommodation for young people leaving care. And we are considering issuing guidance on encouraging and enabling people in residential care homes to manage their own finances where they are capable of doing so.

The Wagner committee has done a valuable service in pointing the way to better standards. The Government are playing their part in responding to its report. We also look to local authorities and private and voluntary agencies, to whom much of the report was primarily addressed, to take those messages to heart and act on them.

The selected agencies and their fields of activity are as follows:

  • Basic training programmes for care staff: the National Institute for Social Work;
  • Ways of increasing contacts between homes and their local communities and a wider role for volunteers: the Social Care Association (Education);
  • Methods of self-assessment and performance evaluation by managers: the Polytechnic of North London;
  • Ways of providing information to help people in choosing a home or alternative to residential care: the Policy Studies Institute.

The department of government, Brunel university will co-ordinate this activity, provide an information service and publish an independent assessment of the programmes.

In addition the Department's social services inspectorate will develop procedures for dealing with suggestions and complaints.

National Health Service staff in post in England nursing and midwifery by district health authority1 at 30 September 1988
Whole lime equivalent2
Total England 403,880
Northern RHA HQ 70
Hartlepool 860
North Tees 1,280
South Tees 2,650
East Cumbria 1,600
South Cumbria 1,120
West Cumbria 1,160
Darlington 1,170
Durham 1,180
North West Durham 730
South West Durham 1,620
Northumberland 3,170
Gateshead 1,400
Newcastle 5,200
North Tyneside 970
South Tyneside 970
Sunderland 2,600
Yorkshire RHA HQ 120
Hull 2,660
East Yorkshire 1,610
Grimsby 1,300
Scunthorpe 1,240
Northallerton 530
York 2,300
Scarborough 890
Harrogate 1,170
Bradford 2,740
Airedale 1,440
Calderdale 1,570
Huddersfield 1,990
Dewsbury 970
Leeds Western 3,420
Leeds Eastern 3,310
Wakefield 2,000
Pontefract 1,070
Trent RHA HQ 100
North Derbyshire 2,270
South Derbyshire 3,980
Leicestershire 6,570
North Lincolnshire 2,230
South Lincolnshire 2,110
Bassetlaw 680
Central Nottingham 2,250
Nottingham 5,670
Barnsley 1,700
Doncaster 2,560
Rotherham 1,850
Sheffield 6,310
East Anglian RHA HQ 50
Cambridge 2,600
Peterborough 1,780
West Suffolk 1,660
East Suffolk 2,640
Norwich 3,950
Great Yarmouth and Waveney 1,410
West Norfolk and Wisbech 1,300
Huntingdon 770
North West Thames RHA HQ 3
North Bedfordshire 1,380
South Bedfordshire 1,900
North Hertfordshire 1,020
East Hertfordshire 1,050
North West Hertfordshire 3,060
South West Hertfordshire 1,240
Whole time equivalent2
Barnet 2,870
Harrow 1,430
Hillingdon 2,050
Hounslow and Spelthorne 2,030
Ealing 1,760
Brent 2,000
Paddington and North Kensington 2,050
Riverside 3,910
North East Thames RHA HQ 110
Basildon and Thurrock 2,180
Mid-Essex 1,910
North East Essex 2,980
West Essex 1,670
Southend 2,000
Barking, Havering and Brent 3,350
Hampstead 2,120
Bloomsbury 3,210
Islington 1,510
City and Hackney 2,620
Newham 1,410
Tower Hamlets 2,390
Enfield 1,500
Harringey 1,350
Redbridge 1,520
Waltham Forest 2,660
South East Thames RHA HQ 10
Brighton 2,250
Eastbourne 1,700
Hastings 1,280
South East Kent 1,610
Canterbury and Thanet 2,590
Dartford & Gravesend 1,880
Maidstone 1,580
Medway 1,640
Tunbridge Wells 1,890
Bexley 1,580
Greenwich 2,050
Bromley 2,180
West Lambeth 2,370
Camberwell 2,310
Lewisham and North Southwark 3,550
South West Thames RHA HQ 120
North West Surrey 1,640
West Surrey and North East Hampshire 1,340
South West Surrey 1,750
Mid-Surrey 1,820
East Surrey 1,740
Chichester 1,370
Mid-Downs 1,780
Worthing 1,570
Croydon 2,300
Kingston and Esher 1,550
Richmond, Twickenham and R. 1,260
Wandsworth 2,940
Merton and Sutton 2,590
Wessex RHA HQ 10
East Dorset 3,210
West Dorset 1,820
Portsmouth and South East 3,930
Southampton and South West 4,180
Winchester 1,310
Basingstoke and North Hampshire 1,780
Salisbury 1,440
Swindon 1,860
Bath 3,120
Isle of Wight 1,030
Oxford RHA HQ 70
East Berkshire 2,310
West Berkshire 2,870
Aylesbury Vale 1,710
Wycombe 1,250
Milton Keynes 730
Whole time equivalent2
Kettering 1,510
Northampton 2,410
Oxfordshire 4,150
South Western RHA HQ 80
Bristol and Weston 3,470
Frenchay 2,690
Southmead 2,160
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 2,900
Exeter 3,300
North Devon 1,000
Plymouth 2,890
Torbay 1,850
Cheltenham 1,350
Gloucester 2,490
Somerset 3,130
West Midlands RHA HQ 130
Bromsgrove and Redditch 1,150
Herefordshire 1,200
Kidderminster 1,280
Worcester 1,700
Shropshire 2,740
Mid-Staffordshire 1,760
North-Staffordshire 4,190
South-Staffordshire 1,900
Rugby 460
North Warwickshire 1,490
South Warwickshire 1,910
Central Birmingham 2,860
East Birmingham 1,400
North Birmingham 1,380
South Birmingham 2,610
West Birmingham 2,540
Coventry 2,600
Dudley 2,070
Sandwell 1,490
Solihull 1,150
Walsall 1,960
Wolverhampton 2,210
Mersey RHA HQ 70
Chester 1,730
Crewe 1,790
Halton 630
Macclesfield 1,580
Warrington 2,350
Liverpool 5,160
St. Helens and Knowsley 2,580
Southport and Formby 1,230
South Sefton 2,290
Wirral 2,770
North Western RHA HQ 120
Lancaster 2,120
Blackpool Wyre and Fylde 2,540
Preston 2,490
Blackburn Hymburn and Ribb 1,930
Burnley Pendle and Rossend 3,240
West Lancaster 920
Chorley and South Ribble 610
Bolton 1,900
Bury 1,100
North Manchester 2,450
Central Manchester 2,070
South Manchester 3,120
Oldham 1,480
Rochdale 1,170
Salford 3,320
Stockport 2,160
Tameside and Glossop 1,420
Trafford 1,230
Wigan 2,110
London Post Graduate SHA 's
The Hospital for Sick Children 1,240
The National Hospital 410
Whole time equivalent2
Moorfields Eye Hospital 190
The Bethlem Royal Hospital 720
The National Heart and Chest 640
The Royal Marsden Hospital 460
Hammersmith and Queen Charlottes 1,230
Eastman Dental Hospital 10
LAS 3
BTS 70
PHLS 10
Other 10
1 Including unqualified nursing and midwifery staff and agency staff.
2 Figures independently rounded to nearest ten (10) whole time equivalents.
3 Indicates less than five (5) whole time equivalents.

Source:Department of Health (SM13) annual census of NHs non-medical manpower.

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